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Government urged to reconsider taxing the internet

By Samira Larbie/Muniratu Adams, GNA

Accra, Oct. 17,
GNA – Professor Nii Narku Quaynor, a Professor of Computer Science at the
University of Cape Coast, has called on government to reconsider taxing the
internet as that could slow development.

He said the
internet was used in so many ways to improve education, health and businesses
among others and that a tax on it would have great repercussions.

Mr Quanor made
the call at a panel discussion at the maiden Ghana Internet Conference
organised by the Ghana Internet Service Providers Association (GISPA) in Accra
on Thursday.

It was on the
theme: “Global Internet Development: Lessons for Local ISPs for Business Growth
and Affordable Internet Provision.”

The Government
could rather tax the applications or services derived from the internet and
leave the connectivity aspect.

He said to
ensure development in the internet space, there was the need for government and
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to own the information society by developing
local content.

“We need to
feel that this is ours and we are determining the policies through
collaborating with other stakeholders to improve our peace in the internet
space,” he said.

Mr Quanor said
ISPs of today had focused solely on connectivity and urged them to rather rally
around users and consumers to do more.

He called for a
policy environment that understands what the standards should be to support the
sector as well as the need to move from compliance to enablement to thrive in
the internet space.

Mr Richard
Densu, the President of Ghana Internet Services Provider Association (GISP),
said the internet gave an unprecedented opportunity to everyone to socialise
and promote business.

He said it was
important that industry players led the way by uniting  to discuss the available services better for
customers for satisfaction.       

Mr Densu said
taxes on the internet were too much and would be better  if they were reduced to develop the local
content to maintain the traffic.        

He added that
even though there was consensus among the players, cost was too much hence the
need to work together to reduce internet cost.

Mr Kenneth
Ashigbey, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana Chamber of
Telecommunications, said Ghana had made a lot of progress with regards to
internet penetration as she had moved from 3G to 4G.

He said the
country needs to drive internet demand in some rural areas to improve on the
issues of coverage.

That, he said,
would expand the internet space leading to development at a cheaper cost.

Mr George
Abban, the Head, Customer Fixed Business, Vodafone Ghana, called for
collaboration and neutralisation of internet license, reduction in cost of
deploying fiber optics and infrastructure to improve internet access.

Mr Alfred
Gaisie, a Regulatory Administrator, National Communications Authority, said the
Authority was focusing on how best to grow the internet and provide minimum
charges for customers to be able to enter into those markets.

He said despite
the challenges in the sector, it allowed for competition to enable the people
to make internet choices for themselves.

“It is our duty
to make sure that what service providers provide are beneficial to the
consumer,’’ he added.

He said the
problem of infrastructure was due to lack of content access, adding; “We expect
industry to grow to enable content services to be hosted in Ghana to reduce
cost’’.

GNA

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